


and we will fight for you

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Near Miss AU [12]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Gen, Modern AU, Parent David Jacobs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:27:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24509893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: Les lives on his brother's couch.
Relationships: Background Sarah Jacobs/Katherine Plumber, David Jacobs & Les Jacobs, David Jacobs/Jack Kelly, past David Jacobs/Katherine Plumber
Series: Near Miss AU [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1735408
Comments: 32
Kudos: 80





	and we will fight for you

**Author's Note:**

> This started as the Les Finds Out fic, and it is still that but it's also just a Les and David's relationship fic, featuring Les's POV on Javid as it develops. One of the scenes in this is Les's POV of chapters 7&8 of Near Miss!  
> Les Jacobs is one of my favorite things about this AU so this was really fun to write. I hope you guys like reading it, too!

Les lives with his brother.

He spends a lot of his life explaining it – to friends who live on campus, to friends who live _off_ campus, to his parents, repeatedly. Dorming is expensive, rent on apartments is expensive, and David lives more conveniently to campus than his parents do. He doesn’t mind that he doesn’t have a bedroom, or that his clothes largely live in the hall closet by the bathroom. David doesn’t mind when Les comes and goes as long as he doesn’t wake Leah and he’s safe, David doesn’t try to parent him, David just lets Les live his life which happens to be on his couch. No, he doesn’t have a bad relationship with his parents. He just wants a little space and the convenience of living a little closer to school and saving a little money.

Those are the reasons that Les tells people, when they ask.

Not a single one of those is the real primary reason why Les moved in with his brother freshman year. None of them is a lie, they just aren’t the whole truth.

David is a single dad.

He refuses point blank to tell anyone anything about Leah’s mother, or really anything at all about where she came from beyond stating firmly that she’s genetically his and he has sole custody. David loves his daughter, but he’s _tired_.

He’s exhausted.

He’s alone.

And Les, all of seventeen and caring deeply for his big brother, makes a decision.

“Why don’t I live with Dave?” he says, in the spring of his senior year. He’s sitting at the kitchen table with his parents, discussing the cost versus practicality of having him live on campus.

“What?”

“His couch is a pullout,” Les reminds them. “And he’s just up the red line from school. I bet he’d let me live with him in exchange for babysitting.”

His mother’s mouth presses into a thin line, the way it often does when Leah comes up. “That isn’t a bad idea. Ask your brother.”

(Their parents love Leah, they do, but they don’t love David’s insistence on secrecy or the circumstances of her birth.)

So Les does, and David agrees.

He’s baffled, but he agrees.

And now Les lives with his brother. He knows David is too proud to ask for help sometimes, so he doesn’t wait to be asked – he takes Leah to the park and helps get her ready when David needs an extra hand and doesn’t bat an eye at the addition of a second toddler to his babysitting nights when David needs some time to just hang out with his only adult friends and _chill_. And all the other benefits, all the ones he tells people when they ask, those are nice, but not quite so nice as seeing David actually smile and relax and laugh for the first time in ages.

Les would rather live with David than with his parents for a lot of reasons, even though there’s a bedroom in his parents’ house waiting for him, but the main one is that he’s _happy_ here. And, he thinks, David is happier with him here. He stays with David through the summer.

Late September of Les’s sophomore year, David meets a boy.

This is a pretty big deal because as far as Les knows, David really hasn’t dated much ever. He never brought anybody home when he was in high school, and while he must have dated in college at least a little, Les doesn’t get the impression there’s more than maybe one or two people in his past.

The most recent of which ended with David shattered and a baby girl in his arms.

Les is, understandably, concerned.

“What’cha thinkin’ about this whole Jack situation, Tony?” Les asks, lounging on the Higgins-Conlon couch. “For real.”

“Jack’s a good guy when he’s got his head on straight,” replies Tony. “I figure if they can get past their hurts – and I don’t just mean Jack here – they could be real good for each other. Seaner’s a little more skeptical, but Sean’s a pessimist at heart.”

Les tips his head back to rest against the arm of the couch, looking up at the ceiling. “Past their hurts could be a pretty big ask, though, at least for David. I know you two have seen some of the fallout of the situation with Leah’s mom, but he was – he was _devastated_ , Tony. I’ve never seen David like that before.”

“Jackie won’t do that kind of damage,” Tony says. “I don’t think he has it in him.”

“I’m sure Dave would’ve told you the same thing about Leah’s mom,” replies Les. He sighs. “I really want to trust his judgment on this guy, but I don’t want to watch David get hurt again.”

“Sometimes you just gotta let people make decisions, little bro,” says Tony. “For what it’s worth, I don’t want to see David get hurt like that either. If I thought there was a chance of that kind of – of pain, for either of them, I’d step in.”

Les sits up, looking at Tony. “Yeah, I know. Thanks for looking out for him.”

“Someone’s got to, eh, kiddo?” Tony says, smiling a little sadly. “You, me, and Sean gotta stick together. Daves needs us.”

“Yeah,” says Les.

So Les is wary but open to getting to know this guy. He knows David’s main worry will be whether he’s good with Leah, but Les’s will always be whether he’s good to David. (How Jack treats Leah is important, but Les knows David would care more about her than himself and _someone_ needs to care about David.)

Jack’s actually really good with Leah. He takes her childish questioning in stride (although hearing Leah very seriously ask him if he has a “crush” on her dad makes Les laugh so hard he has to leave the room), and he takes her seriously.

He takes Les seriously, too.

“Les, hi,” Jack says, standing and offering his hand as soon as Les is back in the room. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Les shakes his hand. “Nice to meet you, Jack.” He drops his voice with a glance at David. “I’ve talked to Sarah. You gonna be good to my brother?”

“I plan to be,” says Jack. He looks sincere, and more than a little bit nervous.

Les nods. He’ll take Jack’s word for now. “A’right.”

He goes over to play with the kids for a minute, leaving Jack and David to talk. It’s not long before it’s time to get set up for the movie, though, so the kids go running back to Leah’s room for the audience and Les gets up to get the cocoa and cookies. David and Jack have taken their places on the couch with a few inches of space between them – they look like they’re sort of hovering on the edge of wanting to be in contact, with neither of them quite willing to close the gap.

Leah and Frankie come thundering back, arms full of toys. They start arranging them on the coffee table.

“Bean, how about you introduce Jack to the audience?” David prompts. Les sees Leah hold a hand up, meaning _hang on a second_ , and Les snorts. David rolls his eyes. “The nerve of this girl, I tell you.”

“Okay, I’m ready,” Leah says eventually, hugging Franklin Bear close to her chest. To Jack, she says, “We like’ta have a big audience for movie night, but there’s only two’a us.”

“Excuse me!” Les interjects, raising his voice to be heard.

“ _Three_ ’a us, I guess,” Leah amends. “While Uncle Les is in school an’ stuff. Anyway, we bring friends out!”

Jack asks – completely without prompting and fully genuinely – about Leah’s toys and Les sees his brother absolutely melt. Jack doesn’t seem to notice, fully engaged with Leah and Frankie, but David’s got this soft almost helpless smile on. It’s honestly, like, disgustingly sappy.

Les can make hot chocolate in his sleep, because they do this every week, so he takes the time to watch David and Jack.

They’re playing with Leah and Frankie, and it looks shockingly natural for the fact that Les has never seen David connect with anybody like this. They look happy, very much caught up in each other and the moment. Les can’t hear what they’re saying, but David is actually blushing.

Holy shit.

Cocoa is done, so Les organizes everything on the tray and carries it out into the living room. “Cocoa time! Kids on pillows please!”

He waits until Leah and Frankie have slid off of Jack and David’s laps and onto their nest of pillows on the floor to set their mugs on the table in front of them, with one cookie each.

“Thank you, Uncle Les,” the kids chorus politely. David, Sean, and Tony have them well trained.

“You’re welcome,” Les replies. He hands David and Jack their hot chocolate, too, and the plate of cookies he set up for them to share, before he goes and camps out on the armchair.

“You guys make these?” Jack asks around a mouthful of cookie. “They’re great.”

“We did,” David replies. He ducks his head a little. “I actually burst into Sean’s halfway through making them last night; we always make them with walnuts and I panicked because I realized I hadn’t asked if you were allergic.” He rubs the back of his neck. He’s actually underselling the ridiculousness of the moment. “In retrospect, I realize that I could’ve texted you, but I don’t think I was really thinking straight.”

“Well I hope you weren’t thinking _straight_ ,” Jack says, wiggling his eyebrows at him. Les snorts. That was, possibly, the worst joke Les has heard all year. It clearly works for David though, because that pink flush is back in his cheeks and a disbelieving laugh is on his lips.

“Oh my god,” says David, “oh my god, that was _terrible_.”

Jack leans in and says something else in a low voice, his tone hopeful, and David looks like he’s stopped breathing.

“Movie. Let’s start the movie – kids, you ready?”

The kids cheer, and Les can’t help but grin at his brother. This is priceless.

As the movie starts, David and Jack scoot a little closer together, talking quietly. Les watches the movie – he loves Hercules – but he also watches David.

It is oddly natural to see David leaning on Jack on their couch. There’s something easy and domestic about it, especially once the kids climb up with them. Frankie curls up next to David with his head on David’s leg, and Leah ends up dozing on Jack’s lap with her head against his chest. It’s sweet, almost painfully sweet.

The movie ends and David gathers up Frankie and carries him over next door.

Jack looks at Les. When he speaks, his voice is quiet. “Hey, she’s asleep. You think she’d wake up if I stand up? I’m sure Davey’s gonna wanna get her to bed.”

“Nah, you’re good. Lee-bee’s a pretty heavy sleeper.” Les scoots forward on his chair. “You need a hand with her? I can take her if you want.”

“I got her,” Jack says. “I’m gonna drop the bear when I stand up though, if you could grab Franklin for me.”

Les chuckles softly. He watches Jack shift Leah a little so he can get a solid grip on her as he gets up; it’s a practiced, easy move, and Les can tell Frankie has fallen asleep in Jack’s arms a fair few times. Sure enough, Franklin Bear slips out of Leah’s sleepy grip, and Les scoops him off of the floor.

Jack opens a hand for him, and Les tucks Franklin’s foot into Jack’s hand.

David comes back and he’s visibly surprised that Jack is already standing and carrying Leah, but not unhappy. The two of them disappear back toward Leah’s room, and Les starts rearranging furniture and getting ready to make up his bed for the night.

Jack reappears first, then David, and the two of them have a conversation Les cannot _hear_ but can definitely _see_ in the kitchen. They’re very close together, both clearly too caught up in each other’s eyes to remember that there is still another person in the room.

Les clears his throat.

David and Jack practically explode apart, going from standing like six inches away from each other to a much less weird for Les two feet. “ _Les!”_

“Yeah, hi, I live here,” says Les, crossing his arms. “Sorry to ruin your mushy moment, but I also don’t want to, like, watch it happen.” He tips his head to one side, his eyes narrowing. “Jack, you stayin’ here?”

(He doesn’t want the answer to be yes for, like, a hundred reasons, but the biggest is that he’s realizing that he wants this to be a lasting thing for David and he can’t see it sticking if they hook up on their second date.)

“No, I – no,” says Jack, and he’s so red it’s honestly hilarious. “You know what, I’m actually gonna leave now. Davey, this was – I’ll see you soon?”

“Very,” David replies quickly. “I’ll text you.”

“Great, amazing,” Jack says. He sounds a little shaken. “Les, it was nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Les says. He’s amused; these are two grown men who were about to smooch in the goddamn kitchen, but now that they’ve been called out on it you’d think they were high schoolers on their first date ever.

Jack and David walk to the door – still in full view of Les the entire time because such is life in a relatively open concept apartment. They stop for a moment in the doorway.

They’re talking again, and right before Jack actually leaves he pushes onto his toes and kisses David goodbye.

“That was unbelievable,” Les says, shaking his head as David comes back into the living room space and sits heavily on the couch. “Dave, are you even breathing?”

(He’s pretty sure he wasn’t.)

So yeah, Les likes Jack. He likes how much less tense David is when Jack’s around, he likes how sweet Jack is to his brother, he likes how good Jack is with Leah and Frankie. And a little less importantly, Jack is always kind to Les.

The longer Les knows him, the more sure he is that Jack and David could really work. The more sure he is that that’s what David wants, deeply.

And then in January, it crashes and burns.

It starts like a normal evening – Mom called earlier about the family reunion in November, and Leah was chattering about it when Jack arrived – but there’s an odd tension over dinner and Les can’t take it. He gets Leah out of Jack and David’s hair, leaving with a firm order to work it out.

He can tell something’s wrong as soon as he walks back through the apartment door. He’s carrying Leah, who dozed off watching Finding Nemo with Frankie while Les talked to Sean about his current curriculum, and that’s the only reason he doesn’t drop onto the couch next to David and start trying to comfort him immediately.

Les carries Leah to her room and tucks her into bed, bidding her goodnight with a kiss to the forehead. When he gets back to the living room, David hasn’t moved – he’s perched right on the edge of the couch like he didn’t quite mean to sit down, picking at his fingers and staring into space. Les sits next to him, taking his hands and gripping them tight, hoping he can be a little bit of an anchor.

It takes a little coaxing, but David tells him what happened –

Jack broke up with David.

David is _shattered_.

Les wants to gather up all the little pieces of his brother and hold him until he feels like a person again. He can see that this isn’t just about Jack – that the problem with Jack traces back further and comes from a much deeper hurt. Shit, Les had really thought David was a little more over this.

(Then again, maybe he should’ve known. David tries really hard to play normal, but looking back there have been cracks in the façade for a long time.)

“Jack isn’t _her_ , David,” Les reminds him. Jack loves David, he loves David so much, and he wouldn’t – he couldn’t – hurt David the way Leah’s mother did.

Not for the first time, Les wishes he knew who gave birth to Leah just so he could go give her a piece of his mind.

It takes a little bit of time, but Jack and David do eventually work things out.

It’s a little fragile at first, and it takes some time for them to get their feet back under them, but it happens.

Les still lives with David through the summer between sophomore and junior year. Jack and David get engaged, and more and more Jack gets incorporated into their little family unit.

David’s relationship with their parents gets better the older Leah gets, but it’s still a little tense. Les knows David’s sense of his ‘immediate’ family has shifted pretty fully to the residents of 2W and 2E. He’s pretty sure, in a sort of detached way, that David is closer to Les now than his twin. All this is to say that it’s all well and good that Jack has met Mom and Dad, but the moment that really matters is the first time Jack comes along on a full family museum trip.

Jack has clicked with their odd family better than anyone could’ve ever predicted. To Les, it feels a lot like there was a spot waiting for him all along.

There’s still something a little fragile behind David’s eyes sometimes, but now he’s got one more person to support him when the cracks make it to the surface.

Late in December, Jack and David go out with some of their friends. Jack’s excited, he’s been talking about it for a while; one of his high school friends is in town, and he’s dying to catch up.

Les has just gotten Leah and Frankie to bed and is ready to enjoy an evening to himself when Jack and David come home.

Turns out Jack’s high school friend is also David’s college friend, and David doesn’t _talk_ to his college friends. Because his college friends are all deeply entangled with the worst thing that’s ever happened to David and all.

(Shit.)

David seems to recover pretty quickly, but Les keeps an eye on him. There’s no denying how shaken David was that night. Les doesn’t press, but not for the first time he finds himself dying to have a few sharp words with Leah’s mother.

Jack moves in with the Jacobses in May.

David, very kindly, does not ask Les to move out.

(David would never, Les knows. Not just because he feels a certain obligation to look out for Les, which he’s sure is the reason he initially let Les move in, but because he’d actually really miss having him around. Because he’s part of the Higgins-Conlon-Jacobs family, too.)

“Hey, Les?” David says one day in June, over breakfast.

“What’s up, Davey?” Les replies. He doesn’t look up from the intense game of froot loop tic-tac-toe he’s playing with Leah.

“It’s been a while since we hung out just the two of us,” says David. “You free today?”

Les glances up at his brother, who’s watching him intently. “Uh, yeah. Is everything okay? ‘Cause you know, if you want me to find another place to live for senior year you can just ask –“

“No, everything’s fine,” David interrupts. “You know I’m happy to have you here as long as you want to be.”

“O _kay_ ,” says Les. “Well I’m free. What do you want to do?”

David shrugs. “I dunno, I’m trying to remember what we used to do when we hung out.”

“I think you mostly just let me annoy you,” Les says, laughing. “I know there’s, like, errands and stuff to do today. How about we do that, and we can get lunch in the middle.”

“Sounds like a plan,” says David. He looks at Jack. “Jackie, you good with Leah for the day?”

“Of course,” Jack replies. He leans across the corner of the table to kiss David, and Les and Leah exchange looks of exaggerated disgust. _Saps._

Running errands as sibling bonding time is almost painfully adulty, but it gives Les a little bit of time to think about how different his relationship to David is from when he was a kid. David is seven years older than Les, so they were never especially _close_ when they were younger. David loved Les and he put up with him, but it wasn’t like David and Sarah.

Now, though, Les is closer to David than almost anybody else in his life. It’s probably a combination of separation from their parents, Leah, and the simple fact that they’re both adults now and a couple of years matters less to their perception of the world. One way or another, Les isn’t complaining.

“There’s something I wanted to talk to you about,” David says. They’re at lunch, in a corner of Jacobi’s waiting for their food.

“I figured,” Les replies. “What’s up?”

“I’ve been keeping Leah’s mother a secret for seven years now,” says David. And oh, this is not at all what Les was expecting.

“You don’t owe anybody that,” Les says firmly. “She hurt you, you don’t need to bare that pain to anybody. Jack hasn’t been giving you trouble about it, has he?”

“No,” says David. “Thank you, Les, but you’ve got it all wrong. I’m tired of carrying this by myself.” He runs his fingers through his hair, fluffing up his curls. “Jack knows already. He’s the first person I ever told, after I almost lost him because I couldn’t get over the cracks she left behind.”

“I see,” Les says, frowning.

“I want you to know, Les,” David tells him. He puts his hand on the table, palm up for Les to take. He does. “I told Sean and Tony a few months ago after – do you remember that night when Benny was in town and Jack and I came back from the bar early?”

“Yeah,” says Les. “College friend, right. Did he say something in front of the others?”

“Almost,” David says. He sighs. “You’re one of the most important people in my life, but I admit I’ve been putting off telling you.”

“David, I don’t need to know if you don’t feel up to telling me,” Les repeats. “I’d never ask that of you.”

“I want to tell you, Les,” says David. He looks down at the tabletop, his fingers tightening around Les’s. “It’s just – it’s Katie.”

“What?”

“Leah’s mom is Katie.”

“Katie – you mean _Sarah’s fucking wife?”_ Les’s eyes are wide, and his own grip on David’s hand is probably painful.

David still won’t meet Les’s gaze. “Yes.”

A lot of things slot into place at once for Les: the way Kath won’t let anybody call her Kate except for David (not even Sarah), the way David sometimes looks like he’s swallowed something bitter after the girls leave, the oddly intimate-yet-distant friendship between the two of them, the way David’s best man speech at the wedding felt a little off that Les hadn’t been able to place.

“Holy _shit_ , Dave,” says Les, “do you have one hell of a martyr complex.”

Startled, David looks up at Les. “What?”

“You didn’t want to ruin things for them, right?” Les asks, shaking his head. “That’s why you never said anything – fuck, did you _ever_ tell Sarah?”

“Kate did, the week I told Jack,” David says. He looks stunned. “After I almost blew up at her for how much she fucked me up in front of Sarah.”

“She’d have deserved it,” Les says, a little viciously. He likes Kath well enough, but fucking hell. David’s in a happy, stable relationship and he _still_ feels the repercussions of that heartbreak sometimes.

“She had her reasons for what she did, Les,” David says quietly.

“David, I love you, but that is _bullshit_ ,” says Les. “You have _never_ been the same person you were before since that happened. And you can say all you want that it’s because parenting changed you, but so does getting your heart ripped out of your chest.” Les lets out an angry exhale through his nose, then inhales slowly, trying to get his emotions back under control. “And then she walked back into your life, and you’d have had _every right_ to send her packing. Sarah would have gotten over her! It’s not like she introduced you when they were already engaged! But no, you have this – this need to make everybody else in the world happy at your own expense, so you lived with that for _years_ without telling anybody? Not even me or Tony or Sean?”

He squeezes David’s hand, then releases his grip. “David, you are so dumb sometimes.”

There are tears in David’s eyes, and Les pretends not to notice him wiping them away.

“I’ve made my peace with her, Les,” David says. “A long time ago. You don’t have to be so angry on my behalf.”

“It’s not like you’re fucking going to be,” snaps Les. “I bet the maddest you ever let yourself get at her was when she and Sarah came trying to talk you out of Jack that first time. Or maybe when they came to _comfort_ you after the breakup?”

“It wasn’t worth it,” David says. It’s not a yes, but it’s definitely not a no either.

“You’re worth it,” Les replies. “Fucking _fuck,_ no wonder you were so weird about their engagement. Davey!”

“Les, please,” says David. “It’s over. I just – I wanted you to know.”

“Every day that you have to look at the mother of your child and pretend not to feel any of the pain I _know_ you still have is a day that it isn’t over,” Les says, his tone firm. “You’re allowed to feel that, you know. Just ‘cause you’ve given them your blessing or whatever doesn’t mean it can’t hurt.”

“I know,” says David.

“David?”

“Yeah, Les?”

“I love you,” Les says, giving his brother a small, sad smile. “I’ve always looked up to you. You are so brave and you care so much, even when you’re hurting. I don’t know if I tell you that enough.”

“I love you, too, Les,” David says, and he’s crying again. This time, he doesn’t make a move to pretend he isn’t. “You’ve grown into a hell of a person, bud. I’m lucky I’ve got you in my life.”

“Damn right you are.”

The conversation moves on, the day moves on. Life moves on.

Les knows David doesn’t want things to be weird with Kath, so he doesn’t ever say anything about it – even when he really wants to.

But if he’s a little colder with Kath, a little quicker to jump to David’s defense? That’s his business.


End file.
